I’m kind of surprised that Nevada’s unincorporated towns didn’t come up in this conversation. Moapa Valley come up in Slack last year, but I don’t think there was any consensus about it. For posterity, I think we should basically classify this kind of place without regard for its (lack of) incorporation. This is pretty important, because not every unincorporated town is as remote as Moapa. The most well-known one is perhaps Paradise, home of the Las Vegas Strip – hardly anyone’s idea of a remote desert oasis, though it was in the past.
The boundaries of these places are at least boundary=census, since the Census Bureau considers them to be CDPs. But they’re a bit more than run-of-the-mill CDPs. The county directs extra funding for services at the territory covered by an incorporated town. On the other hand, its governing board is merely advisory, which puts them on the same plane as a humble New York City community district: